The people of the lesser developed countries have suffered so much. But there are those who try to change this sad situation. I give thanks to WDM and its work.
Archbishop Desmond TutuWelcome to WDM Richmond and Kingston Group
We are an active group that holds informal meetings once a month in members' houses in the Kingston and Richmond area. We also have close links with other organisations that are active in the area through the Kingston Peace and Justice Network, which is a loose network of supporters of WDM, Oxfam, Christian Aid, Friends of the Earth, Kingston Peace Council and others.
Photo gallery
2007 Calendar of Events
For details of WDM meetings, including locations, please contact Jeannette James: email dougandnett@yahoo.co.uk or phone 020 8399 6222
Friday January 12th: WDM meeting 8pm, Surbiton
Saturday January 20th: London Groups Teach-in - Climate Change 1-6pm, WDM Offices, 66 Offley Road, SW9
Friday February 2nd: Trade Justice? In conversation with Edward Davey, MP for Kingston and Surbiton 7.45 for 8pm, Our Lady Immaculate Church, Tolworth Broadway
Thursday February 15th: WDM meeting 8.15pm, Chessington
Thursday March 15th: WDM meeting 8pm, Twickenham
Friday April 27th: WDM meeting 8.15pm, Chessington
Monday May 28th: Kingston Green Fair WDM stall
Friday June 14th: WDM meeting 8pm, Surbiton
Thursday July 12th: WDM meeting 8.15pm, Chessington
Thursday August 30th: WDM meeting 8pm, Twickenham
What we do
2006 began with a Kingston Peace and Justice Network meeting with John Bowis, MEP who has a special interest in developing countries, who lives in New Malden. A further KP&JN meeting was planned with Susan Kramer, MP for Richmond Park, who was LibDem spokesperson on Development at that time. Due to the death of her husband she was unable to come, and we were very grateful to Jenny Tonge, her predecessor, for taking her place at short notice.
A small group of us had two meetings Edward Davey, MP for Kingston and Surbiton , when he was shadowing the DTI, the second occasion being mainly concerned with the Companies Bill then going through parliament. We subsequently heard that our local LibDem MPs had been especially helpful to the organisations like WDM who were campaigning on the Companies Bill legislation (this came from CORE, a corporate responsibility alliance).
Significant further progress has been made on Fairtrade in 2006, with Richmond achieving Fairtrade Borough status, and Kingston University achieving Fairtrade University status in April. The latter is very helpful to Fairtrade as the university gets through over 3,500 ?Fairtrade beverages? a week! In Fairtrade Fortnight (March) the Kingston Fairtrade Steering Group hosted a woman banana farmer from St Vincent. She spoke to over 1000 pupils in 4 schools. Following her talk in the secondary schools, one of us talked about Fairtrade locally and linked this to the wider Trade Justice campaign and Make Poverty History. Other WDM members continue to work on Fairtrade in their home boroughs.
On World Water Day, also in March, one of our group took part in a water stunt organised by WDM. We also had our usual stall at Kingston Green Fair, always an excellent event for talking to the public although the weather was less kind last year.
During 2005 we organised and participated in a number of events and activities in the local area and further afield.
The first major event was the Global Week of Action on Trade in April, when local WDM members, joined 25,000 people for the all-night vigil in London, and then participated in one of the delegations that met with representatives of the three main political parties.
On Spring Bank Holiday Monday we had a WDM stall at Kingston Green Fair, which is by far the best local event for talking to lots of people of all ages. The General Election was also in May and we held a hustings meeting with six Kingston and Surbiton candidates, under the auspices of Kingston Peace and Justice Network.
On July 2nd many of us were in Edinburgh for the wonderful Make Poverty History march, and 1 or 2 were in Gleneagles (or as close as they could get!) on the day the G8 leaders arrived. November 21st found some of us in Brussels lobbying various MEPs before the WTO meeting in Hong Kong.
2005 was also the year Kingston achieved Fairtrade Borough status (in Fairtrade Fortnight in March see http://www.kingstonfairtrade.org.uk); Richmond and other local areas have also begun to work towards this.
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